Features - QOTW: Are graphics card rebrands acceptable to you?

[Andrew McP]

Modern marketing is corrupt and misleading, whether we're talking about the contents of a tin of Quality Street or the naming of graphics cards. We've drifted so far away from respecting the customer that folk have become increasingly accepting of increasingly unacceptable behaviour across the whole retail spectrum.

In this case though it's only graphics cards, which are luxuries in life, and therefore totally trivial. So I won't lose any sleep over it.

I'm not buying any Quality Street this year either; Aldi's stuff is far better value. Shame they don't make video cards as well.

[Spreadie]

I'm not buying any Quality Street this year either; Aldi's stuff is far better value. Shame they don't make video cards as well.

LOL.

I can imagine them knocking out GPUs at rock bottom prices but still charging you for the box to take it home in.

[mondayriot]

Not acceptable, just call it the previous model 'MK II'

[VijaySathyan]

If its cheaper than the old and updated then yes they are acceptable.

I second that!

[Michael H]

Repurposing a GPU further down a product stack on a subsequent 'generation' is no problem with me - on the proviso that feature set is comparable to the rest of the series.

Simply renaming a GPU at a similar position in the product stack to make it seem new, without changing the price would be a definate no-no in my opinion.

[mojothejester]

when they've renamed them and dropped price/increased performance, then it's good. when they just change the name but don't offer anything more than the previous version, then they may as well just wait and keep the name

[sonicaidan]

Only if you're updating up really. Definitely not if you're upgrading from the older ones. Tbh, nvidia all the way

[THESPECIAL1]

Don't have a problem with it as the 'new' cards are slightly cheaper plus the 7 series cards are currently being discounted by several on-line retailers.

[big_hairy_rob]

How are they possibly acceptable? Surely they are selling one thing as a different new different thing which should make this technically fraud?

[abychristy]

How are they possibly acceptable? Surely they are selling one thing as a different new different thing which should make this technically fraud?

Technically speaking nope, you are wrong !

[MustardCutter]

I don't care becasue I keep myself informed on these things but the less technically savvy average Joe would probably be P!ssed off if they found out.

[krazy_olie]

Desktop buyers tend to be a bit more savvy about these things... especially the ones buying the cards as components. on laptops this sort of thing is rife and misleads consumers.

[MaverickWill]

The question that should be asked is, "Are these cards multi-GPU-friendly with their old stablemates?". HardOCP found that the 280X does, in fact, play nice with the 7970, which is great from the point of view of people who bought in to last-gen cards (ie the people that funded R&D on next-gen cards).

Hopefully with rebrands we will see longer support cycles for graphics cards and better compatibility/scaling with multi-GPU solutions.

Then again, I'm a naive optimist.

[63jax]

why not, as long as the performance in there and the prices fall a bit

[SpeedyJDK]

It's NOT ok. And they should be fined for making ppl think their old cards is brand new cards.
(And for those telling it could have a brand new bios.... release some bios updates. How hard can it be)

[TheMaterialGamer]

Its not that bad, they did come with abit of a price drop from the original cards. I just wish the older cards had come down a little more in price, the newer ones are still cheaper.